Egyptian security forces arrested six terrorists who had planned to attack newly elected President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s entourage after his swearing-in ceremony next Sunday.
The arrest was reported in the Egyptian paper Al-Watan, which added that diagrams of the new president’s palaces and paths of how to enter them were found in the possession of the terrorists, according to Yedioth Aharonoth.
An initial investigation of the six suspects revealed that the plot consisted of a 15-man terror cell affiliated with the Salafist terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which is based in the Sinai peninsula.
In investigations it became clear that the plan was to attack Sisi’s entourage by means of a car bomb, explosives, or a suicide bomber.
Security sources said two weeks ago that Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis’s commander Shadi al-Menei had been shot dead in an ambush. The group responded by denying that its leader was killed, also denying that Menei was its leader. Earlier in the year the terror group fired rockets from the Sinai Peninsula towards the Israeli city of Eilat.
Official results of the presidential election were announced on Tuesday, officially declaring Sisi Egypt’s new president with over 96% of the vote.
However, former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Tzvi Mazel told Arutz Sheva last week that Sisi will have a hard time putting the country in order, warning that he may face a revolution from the streets.
Sisi laid out his policy in interviews before the elections, stating that there was a chance for “true peace” if Israel adopts the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which demanded Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria at which point the Arab states would supposedly recognize it.
In the same interview Sisi said he would be willing to change the peace agreement with Israel.